The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-03-19
GYPSY GRANDAMS.
Aged Females Who Constitute the
Really Witching Part of the
ROmany People.

AT nearly every tent-mouth or in
nearly every wagon-front you will see
one or more of the old spae wives of
the camp. These are the Gypsy grand
ans. They are tall and strong. though
wrinkled and grewsome. If away past
fourscore years of age, they have their
own teeth, are wonderful on their legs
and in their faculties, and are living
lessons of the healthfulness of outdoor
life. They are not put aside as we do
our own old folk. They are the seers,
the prophetesses, the advisers, the
strong, safe reserve influence in all the
important affairs OF the race. Many
and many know well, though they are
hard to know. But they Will not DIS
close ike the younger growth, and you
have to battle your way bravelv and
with valiant persistency to reach their
inner-liYes. With their shrill. keen
voices; their coarse, gray hair. which
never becomes fairly white; their fat.
brown, ever-open breasts, like rugged
studies in bronze; their quick, swinging
and seemingly fierce gait, suggesting
unchanglng power; their long, skinny
arms and legs, half shown TO me knee,
and their eyes, undimmed to their dying
dav though never knowing shade from
the sun other than that OF the tree or
t. nt-they are the really witching part
of the Romany people; and as you
study them by the caCapfres there,
though you are impressed with the res
pect and even tenderness all Weld them,
you can for the first time rightly under
stand bow Lancashire Witches came
to be written, and how true a type
SCOTS Meg Merrilies may have been.
These old spae-wives never labor They
increasingly putter. They poke the fires
when they need no poking. They fuss
with the cooking meals at all sorts of
inopportune moments. They quarrel
with the thinkers, who yelp back at them
all sorts of respectful badinage. They
beat the dogs numerically for no Of
Tense, for no human ever saw q Gypsy
dog commit al improperly. They Der
ate sons and grandsens for alleged un-
satisfactory dickering, and garrulousy
insist that the world shall be made more
and more the Gypsy,s prey. They
awake as from ati o'er-long dream and
assault the horses and mules, which
tremble and crouch as before tempest
They charge upon registering children,
who scatter to cover and send back mock
pieadings or uncanny laughter from
their safe retreats. They are ever
sleeping, yet never asleep; and the
breaking of twig. or the rustling of
leaves at night will bring these ghostlv
and fearless old souls to their feet in
the middle of the camp before the alert
est of the men have awakened. They
are bright, brave relics of time when
life to the Gypsy was one of eternal
dread; and they would not quite be
happy in the new life that has come to
them could they not entertain the belief
in their active but utterly useless exist
ences that their own owlish alertness
each day and night kept the old being
(deviD himself from utterly annihiiat-
ing every soul in the camp. And in
deed would the devil himself be vail
ant fellow were he bold enough to med.
die with any folk thus sentineied by
women.
Here and there are seen very old men
tinkering about wagons, mending bar
ness, bringing dry branches, and piling
them by the tents, or gathering dead
limbs from the deeper forests for the
common ''woodpile" to which all mem
bers of the camp sometimes bring bits
and pieces and branches, going over
ard over the horses like the skiIlful vet
ezinarians they are, bringing water
from the stream for cooking and wash
ing purposes, and doing Unnumerable
odd jobs and chores naturally necessary
from camp life; yet still doing every
thing in that easy, plenty-of-time way
which gives all the people of the place
an air of content and vagabondism no
pen can fully describe. These old men
are the silent shadowy presences of the
land. You will not hear one of them
speak Lalt dozen times a day. The
queer, hating Gypsy dogs follow silently
about at respectful distance from their
heels as dumb and expreSsionless as
themselves. But those old men all help
round out the picture, and while they
are far less noisy than the fussy and
querelous old spae-wiges of the band
they are nevertheless faithful and con
slant in whatever falls to their lot TO see
done or to do.-Edgar L. Wakeman, in
Chicago Nelcs.